'Surviving Mother Nature’s Tests' directly relates many of the situations observed in nature to the lives of families who experienced or endured them, primarily over the past several centuries. Family historians will appreciate that natural events had wide-ranging effects on generations of people – especially in consideration of how they sought to obtain the basic necessities of food, shelter and employment – as well as influencing changes to political, economic and societal situations.

Information presented here will also be of interest to those who want an introduction to the causes and effects of climate change and its impact on the environment and human habitats of the past.

The book summarises different natural phenomena, the time periods in which they occurred and explanations of how people survived the particular tests imposed on them by Mother Nature. Among these are:

Climate Change – what controls global changes

Epochal Changes – how gradual altering of physical environments and human habitats occurring over generations affected living conditions and societal history

The Holocene Eepoch – brief summaries of human and natural history of the last 10,000 years illustrating the frequency of alternating warm and cold periods and the commonality of the effects on societies

The Last Millennium – natural conditions during the last 1,000 years with an emphasis on the effects on people, communities and social systems

Slow-Developing Events – how such events as drought and famine, erosion of coastal margins, infilling of estuaries, shifts in river courses and volcanic activity affected living conditions and economies

Rapidly-Materialising Incidents – impacts on people and communities from disease, earthquakes, floods and storms

REVIEW:'We are all products of the challenges successfully faced by our ancestors. Whether they were natural, the topic of this book, man-made like war and willful neglect, or often a combination, we only exist because of the web of thousands upon thousands of forebears making up our family tree who came through the adversities they faced. The heart of the book is two major chapters delving into specific examples of how climate and other natural phenomena have impacted society which comprise more than half of Surviving Mother Nature's Tests text.' - John Reid, Anglo-Celtic Connections blog (please note is above is only a portion of the review, you can read his full review here).